Thank you to everyone who commented, emailed and sent PM’s via Ravelry to express condolences on the loss of Kishka. I appreciate all of the kind words and stories that you shared with me. As many people commented, Kish’s death was very sudden and unexpected. I think I’m finally getting over the sheer shock of it and am starting to process what happened.

One thing I’m getting used to is a quiet house. I knew that Kish wooed a lot, but I didn’t realize just how much she wooed. My house is so darn quiet now. It’s kind of spooky.

I’m also showering Sadie with attention. She and Kishka bonded from the very beginning and I knew that Kish’s death would be rough on Sadie. For the first few days, Sadie seemed to look for Kishka. She was constantly walking around the house and yard. She’s stopped the searching and now she just seems depressed. I realize I’m anthropomorphizing her, but there’s no way around it: the dog has got the blues.

Weekends are for outdoor adventures and that continues. Hiding in my house eating chocolate will not bring Kishka back (a tactic I have tried) so last weekend Sadie and I headed out for our weekly adventure. I couldn’t face our usual park, so we went to a different one. Sadie had to stay on her leash at this park, but we still had fun.

The scenery was beautiful.

The trails weren’t crowded.

Sadie enjoyed leading the way.

She got impatient with all my picture taking.

And we found a gorgeous spot to rest.

This weekend we went back to our regular park. It was a gorgeous day.

There were even birds singing.

Sadie has always been a follower, not a leader, so for the first hour or so she stuck close by my side. Kishka always led the way and I don’t think Sadie quite knew what to do without her there. After some encouragement from me, she ventured off on her own.

Always keeping an eye on me, of course.

There was snow to eat.

A stream to splash in.

And, a hole to dig.

This last one took me by surprise. I’ve never seen Sadie dig a hole, but she dug a huge one yesterday.

Sadie also found a friend to play Chase with her.

She never came close to catching him, but she had fun trying.

She was a very tired girl when we got home.

There has been knitting around here. I finished the Film Noir socks last weekend.

One of the things I love about living here is that the scenery is always gorgeous.

Even an overcast day has a kind of beauty to it.

Being stopped at a light isn’t so awful when this is the view:

The weather cooperated this weekend, so I loaded up the girls and headed to the park.

I love watching them explore together.

I’m very grateful that they’re such good friends.

Sadly, for Sadie, the friendship does not include romping. (Kishka has never been a fan of such undignified behavior.)

Sadie finally found a friend that was willing to romp.

As always, there was squirrel hunting.

Once a squirrel is spotted, the race is on:

Kishka was able to run, too!

Sadie went off exploring a few times, but always kept a close eye on me:

A clear sign of a good day at the dog park is mud. Let’s assess this visit:

Kishka?

Check.

Sadie?

Check.

Me?

Check.

It was a fun afternoon.

I was watching the Olympics last night when I looked down and saw this:

I have no idea how the pig toy ended up posed against Sadie’s leg.

This picture also shows that the majority of my (very small) living room floor is taken up by dog beds. Walking through the room is kind of like navigating an obstacle course. I like to think that it improves my agility. In reality, it’s probably only a matter of time before I break an ankle.

I’m making progress on the Film Noir socks.

I’m hoping to finish them soon, but I cut open my index finger today (ouch!) so knitting is not going to happen for the next few days. I managed to cut it at the exact spot where the needle and yarn go across it. Idiot.

There are no park pictures to show in this week’s post. That’s because there was no visit to the park this weekend. This weekend (and the entire week) has been spent on my couch. The nightmare of a cold that’s going around struck me last Sunday and has knocked me flat for an entire week.

Instead of the park this weekend, there was the couch. It wasn’t all bad, though. A certain furry friend of mine loves to snuggle.

Here she is on my legs:

And here she is in full snuggle mode…sprawled on top of me:

Being sick sucks, but having a loyal friend at your side on top of you makes it a bit better.

I was too sick to knit for most of the week (the horror!), but over the past day or two I’ve knit the heel flaps, turned the heels and started one of the gussets on the Film Noir socks:

I pulled on one of my favorite pairs of socks this week and discovered a problem:

The stitches from the heel flap have totally pulled away from the gusset. Once I’m feeling better, I’ll try to fix it and save the socks.

Kishka had a vet appointment yesterday and I had him look at her leg. I thought she hurt it at the park last week (she’s had a heck of a limp all week). It turns out she has a severe case of arthritis in one of her knees. It’s so severe that if she were a younger dog (Kish is around 10 years old), my vet would recommend a knee replacement. Because of Kish’s age, it’s about management of pain.

Kish has new food (with lots of joint friendly supplements) and a bottle of pain pills. Her days of fetch are over (too much stress on the knee due to the sudden stops and starts).

The park, however, is still in the picture so we spent part of our weekend there.

The girls went exploring together:

They looked for squirrels:

They were very excited to see that part of the stream was unfrozen so that they could go splashing:

Sadie was so happy that she couldn’t stop barking with joy:

Some of the stream thawed and was flowing throw the frozen parts of the stream:

I sat on this log and took pictures:

Sadie loves to play Chase. Kishka does not play Chase. She never has (Max and Sam used to play it and would try to get her to join them) and Sadie has learned to not even try to engage her.

When we go to the park Sadie always looks for dogs who will play with her. On this day she was successful:

Chase makes Sadie very happy:

Kishka enjoyed exploring the frozen parts of the stream:

Wooing at her sister (she loves to order Sadie around):

And drinking the ice cold water:

We all enjoyed relaxing on the bank above the stream:

I had a comment a few posts ago about how svelte Sadie is looking. Since I see her everyday, her weight loss isn’t as noticeable to me. I know she’s lost weight, but I tend to focus on how much more she has to lose.

I went back to one of the first pictures I ever took of her back in March of 2008.

Here’s what she looked like then:

And yesterday:

Wow. Those 18 lbs. she’s lost have really made a difference! She still has more to lose (which will be made tougher with Kishka’s limitations on exercise), but she has come a long way. Even if she doesn’t lose another pound, she is much healthier than she was when I adopted her.

I’m making slow but steady progress on the Film Noir socks.

I had a question about who makes this yarn. It’s by Sweet Paprika. They have a website and also sell through The Loopy Ewe. I’m a sucker for self striping yarn and will definitely be buying more colors of this yarn. It’s even more gorgeous in person and is a joy to knit.

After some bitterly cold weather this week, the weekend has been warm (relatively) and sunny. The girls and I headed out to our favorite park.

The stream where they like to splash was completely frozen:

There were a few slips (just after I snapped this picture, Kishka’s four legs went in four different directions):

At one point, Sadie jumped out of the frozen stream and when she hit the ice covered stream bank she did nearly a full backwards somersault before landing back where she started. Sadly, I have no pictures of that (she was okay, just a bit startled). As for me, I was doubled over in laughter. 🙂

I always love watching how Sadie looks to Kishka for guidance:

I’m so grateful that they’re such good friends. Sometimes I think they only keep me around to earn money to buy dog food and to use my opposable thumbs to open the locked dog food container. Otherwise, they’d be quite happy to kick me out and travel the road of life together.

We did a lot of walking and they did a lot of running. This necessitated a quick nap:

Kishka (of course) did some squirrel hunting. Here she is scanning the stream bank:

And here is her “wait quietly for one to come to the ground” technique:

The quality of this picture isn’t great, but it perfectly captures Sadie’s “I’m so happy I’m at the park” face:

There has been knitting this week. I don’t have a lot of time to knit, but I’m making good progress on the socks:

I bought this yarn (and the yarn in the last post) in 2009 because I’ve set a goal for 2010: I want to knit entirely from my stash this year and not buy any more yarn. I have so much gorgeous sock yarn (and it’s all documented on Ravelry if you care to check it out 🙂 ). I need to use it and appreciate it so 2010 is the year of Sock Knitting From My Stash. I’m posting about it here to keep myself accountable.

One exception: this does not count my current credit at The Loopy Ewe. I can spend that credit this year, but that’s it.

After ten days at home I had some separation anxiety when I returned to work on Monday. When I came home I saw this:

Sadie continues her love of being upside down:

I watched a news program at the end of last year and one reporter declared the last decade as the time in history when technology took the biggest leap forward. I agree with him.

I was thinking about this the other night when I was lying in bed browsing the internet on my phone. I have an app on my phone that hooks into web cams around the world. I was watching scenes (live or close to it) from around the world while lying warm and cozy in my bed. I was also able to capture what I was seeing and here are my two favorite pictures from that night.